Shitterton is a hamlet nestling at the edge of the village of Bere Regis

Bere Regis

Bere Regis is a village in the Purbeck district of Dorset, England, situated north-west of Wareham.The village has one shop, a post office and two pubs, The Royal Oak and The Drax Arms. The parish church is St. John the Baptist Church...

 in the Purbeck district of Dorset

Dorset

Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, near the junction of the A31

A31 road

The A31 is a major trunk road in southern England that runs from Guildford in Surrey to Bere Regis in Dorset.-Route of road:The road begins in the centre of Guildford, meeting the A3 road before running south west along the Hog's Back. It continues past Farnham, Alton and New Alresford before...

 and A35

A35 road

The A35 is a trunk road in southern England, running from Honiton in Devon, that then passes through Dorset and terminates in Southampton, Hampshire...

 trunk road

Trunk road

A trunk road, trunk highway, or strategic road is a major road—usually connecting two or more cities, ports, airports, and other things.—which is the recommended route for long-distance and freight traffic...

s halfway between Poole

Poole

Poole is a large coastal town and seaport in the county of Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester, and Bournemouth adjoins Poole to the east. The Borough of Poole was made a unitary authority in 1997, gaining administrative independence from Dorset County Council...

 and Dorchester. The name of the hamlet (sometimes Sitterton) is considered humorous by some, and it is ranked number 9 in the book Rude Britain

Rude Britain

Rude Britain is a 2005 book of British place names with seemingly rude or offensive meanings...

: The 100 Rudest Place Names in Britain.

Shitterton was featured in an article in the British newspaper The Independent

The Independent

The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...

in May 2008.

Stone sign

Due to frequent theft of its signs by souvenir collectors, the Dorset district council decided to stop replacing the Shitterton road sign

Traffic sign

Traffic signs or road signs are signs erected at the side of roads to provide information to road users. With traffic volumes increasing over the last eight decades, many countries have adopted pictorial signs or otherwise simplified and standardized their signs to facilitate international travel...

. In July 2010, after three years without a sign, over half of the 50 Shitterton households decided to make a contribution to erect a one-and-a-half ton

Ton

The ton is a unit of measure. It has a long history and has acquired a number of meanings and uses over the years. It is used principally as a unit of weight, and as a unit of volume. It can also be used as a measure of energy, for truck classification, or as a colloquial term.It is derived from...

 slab of Purbeck Stone

Purbeck Marble

Purbeck Marble is a fossiliferous limestone quarried in the Isle of Purbeck, a peninsula in south-east Dorset, England.It is one of many kinds of Purbeck Limestone, deposited in the late Jurassic or early Cretaceous periods....

to mark the hamlet's entrance. The new sign has yet to be stolen.

External links

• Bere Regis village Web site
• Shit- place-names in England by Keith Briggs